Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The 2019 Women’s World Cup

The eighth Women’s World Cup kicks off (literally) on June 7 in Paris. From the teams taking part to the players who are expected to shake things up on the pitch, here’s everything you need to know about France 2019 and the biggest event in women’s soccer.

Team USA Was The First Winner

The 1991 FIFA Women’s World Championship in China was sponsored by Mars candy and won by the United States after they defeated Norway 2-1 in the final before a 65,000-strong crowd at Guangzhou’s Tianhe Stadium. U.S. forward Carin Jennings (formerly Carin Gabbara), who retired in 1996, was named player of the tournament and received the Golden Ball, while Michelle Akers took the Golden Boot for scoring both goals in the final match.

The 2019 Cup Will Be Held Across Nine French Cities

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the eighth edition of the tournament, will be hosted by France for the first time.

Bidding to be the host country began in 2014 when member associations were invited to submit a declaration of interest. England, France, Korea Republic (what FIFA calls South Korea), New Zealand and South Africa did so; it was later narrowed down to France vs. Korea Republic.

Matches will be held in nine French cities, including Paris, Lyon, Nice and Montpellier. The biggest stadium is Lyon’s Parc Olympique Lyonnais, which has a capacity of 59,186.

Team USA Is the Defending Champion

The U.S. team enters the 2019 tournament as the defending champion, following their 5-2 victory over Japan at BC Place, in Vancouver on July 5, 2015. The win was their first in 16 years and made the U.S. the only nation to have won in three Women’s World Cup finals (they previously won in 1991 and 1995). The match got off to a great start for Team USA, with four goals inside the opening 16 minutes.

Four Teams Will Make Their World Cup Debut In 2019

Following matches played between April 2017 and December 2018, 24 teams qualified for the final tournament, including five teams from Asia, three teams from Africa, three teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean, two teams from South America and eight teams from Europe.

Teams making their Women’s World Cup debuts are Chile, Jamaica, Scotland and South Africa. It’s the eighth World Cup for Brazil, Norway, Sweden, U.S., Japan, Germany and Nigeria.

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Team USA Tops The World Rankings

Going into the World Cup, the United States ranks No. 1 in the world, followed by Germany at No. 2 and England at No. 3. The host nation France ranks fourth, Canada is fifth and Australia is sixth.

With the final squad lists for each of the 24 participating teams revealed, pundits and fans across the world are sharing their predictions for how each team will perform — and who will lift the coveted trophy on July 7.

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Group A Will Be France, Korea Republic, Norway And Nigeria

As always, pressure will be on the host nation, whose team didn’t reach its first finals tournament until 2003. France’s star player is their captain, Lyon’s Amandine Henry, who has won every possible trophy on the domestic stage.

France 2019 will mark Korea Republic’s third appearance in the Women’s World Cup finals, where they’ll be depending on their key figure, Ji Soyun, who made her international debut at age 15.

Norway won the competition in 2011 and will be hoping that dead-ball specialist Maren Mjelde will help them secure the trophy again.

Group C: Australia, Italy, Brazil And Jamaica

France 2019 is the seventh-consecutive Women’s World Cup finals for Australia, whose star player is attacker Sam Kerr. When it comes to tackles, she has a 100 percent success rate. But Brazil has a better record; they’re one of the very few nations to have a team that has qualified for every single Women’s World Cup final.

At the other end of the scale, it’s the first finals in 20 years for Italy, who is currently ranked 15th in the world.

Group D Will Be England, Scotland, Argentina And Japan

France 2019 is England’s fifth appearance at the Women’s World Cup finals and the team’s fourth in a row. Fourth-favorites to win and ranked third in the world, they sailed through their qualifying games unbeaten.

How Team USA Got There

The road to France was a straightforward one for Team USA. To secure qualification, it beat Mexico 6-0, Panama 5-0 and Trinidad and Tobago 7-0 before a 6-0 victory over Jamaica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Women’s Championship. A 2-0 win over Canada in the final clinched an impressive eighth regional title — no other country has ever won more than two. Team USA also scored the most goals (26) of all participating teams.

The Threat From ‘Les Bleus’

With no group stage opponent ranked higher than 12th place (the Norwegians), the French, nicknamed Les Bleus, are expected to progress without too much difficulty. In recent competitions, they made it to the quarterfinals in each of the 2017 UEFA Women’s Championships, the 2016 Olympics and the 2015 World Cup.

Although France automatically qualified as the host nation (thus avoiding the qualification stages), they’ve performed well throughout friendlies, winning all but one of their past 14 matches.

The German Contenders Are Strong

Only four nations have won the Women’s World Cup since it began in 1991, and Germany has done it twice; it’s the only nation apart from the U.S. to win more than one.

The Germans bounced back from their semifinal defeat at Canada 2015 to win gold at Rio 2016 against Sweden and reach the quarterfinals of the 2017 Women’s Euros, where they lost to Denmark. However, they lost their matches with France and USA at the 2018 SheBelieves Cup, which explains why they’re only third-favorites to win at France 2019.

Brazil Has The Best Player Of All Time

While Brazil only has odds of 20-1 to win the Women’s World Cup, they have a very talented squad, plus one of the most experienced players in the whole tournament: Marta Vieira da Silva, who has been named world player of the year six times and has scored the most goals (15) in Women’s World Cup history.

She currently holds the record for most all-time awards — male or female — and is such a legendary player that she’s known around the world simply as “Marta.”

This Is The Greatest Women’s World Cup Goal Of All Time

FIFA held a vote on its website to find out fans’ greatest Women’s World Cup goal of all time, and the honor went to Mónica Ocampo for her long-range strike in Mexico’s opening match against England at Germany 2011.

In second place was Song Xiaoli’s goal for China PR in their first match of the 2007 tournament they hosted, with Carli Lloyd’s halfway line goal for Team USA in the final at Canada 2015 ranking third.

To date, a grand total of 771 goals have been scored in the history of the Women’s World Cup, but it won’t be long before that number rises.

Canada Holds The Record For Attendance

At the inaugural tournament in China PR in 1991, the average attendance was 19,615. The highest average attendance was at USA 1999 (37,319), and at Canada 2015 it was 26,029. But in terms of total attendance, Canada 2015 set a new record of 1,353,506; the biggest turnout was for the Canada vs. England quarter-final in Vancouver, which was attended by 54,027 people.

Millions Are Expected To Tune In

Each Women’s World Cup has seen an uptick in viewership and attendance. In 2015, 764 million in-home TV viewers watched at least one minute of match action from Canada, according to FIFA and KantarSport.

France 2019 Has A Familiar Feathered Mascot

This year’s official mascot is ettie, the daughter of Footix, who was the mascot for the 1998 Men’s World Cup in France. Her name stems from étoile, the French word for star, as she came from the bright star Footix was awarded for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA describes ettie as a “young chicken with a passion for life and football.” FIFA also says, “Her strong family connection to the Gallic rooster, who is still a popular national French symbol, makes her a fitting choice as the Official Mascot for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019.”

There’s More Prize Money—But Not As Much As Men

Team USA received $2 million for winning the Women’s World Cup in 2015. However, this is a fraction of the $35 million the men’s champions, Germany, took home in 2014.

FIFA has doubled the women’s prize money for 2019, meaning the winners will get $4 million, and the overall prize fund has also increased — from $15 million in 2015 to $30 million. It’s still dwarfed by the men’s prize money, which was $400 million for the 2018 World Cup, where winners France banked $38 million.

The world players’ union FIFPro said in a statement that “football remains even further from the goal of equality for all World Cup players regardless of gender.”

France 2019 Will Be Debut For Video Assistant Referee

The 2019 tournament will be the first to use the video assistant referee (VAR) system, after it was approved by the FIFA Council following its use at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. VAR, which consists of a team of three people who watch video replays of on-pitch incidents in order to review particular referred decisions, is designed to eliminate debate, but some say it has created even more controversy.

How To Watch The Women’s World Cup

Fox has the Women’s World Cup broadcast rights in the U.S. and will broadcast all English-called matches on Fox, FS1 and FS2. Telemundo and Universo will broadcast the matches in Spanish. You can also access all channels online using fuboTV, where you can sign up for a free trial. The first match of the tournament is France vs. Korea Republic on June 3, and Team USA makes their France 2019 debut against Thailand on June 11.